At the newsstand, Chen Qiang took the new issue of Superman comics. He was about to pay, but he saw a copy of the cover of Time magazine next to him, which was an Asian man and looked familiar.
Chen Qiang couldn't help but pick up the Time magazine, and after a closer look, he immediately recognized that the Asian person on the cover was nothing but the new Japanese ambassador to the United States Yoshisaburo Nomura.
"How did the old devil, Yoshisaburo, Nomura, get on the cover of Time magazine?" Chen Qiang couldn't help but feel curious and paid the money together with this Time magazine.
After returning to the office, Chen Qiang opened "Time" and soon found reports about Nomura Yoshisaburo. What Chen Qiang did not expect was that this "Time" magazine actually praised Nomura Yoshisaburo, who called the newly appointed Japanese ambassador "a kind-hearted, sincere and treacherous General Nomura Yoshisaburo, always smiling and humble in his attitude."
"Americans are blinded by lard! It's not a few months since the Pearl Harbor incident. At that time, see if you Americans can still praise them. Let you know what it means to hide a knife in a smile." Chen Qiang pouted disdainfully.
The exclusive interview with Yoshisaburo Nomura in Time magazine made Chen Qiang more annoyed the more he watched. During the interview, Yoshisaburo Nomura repeatedly stated that the actions of the Japanese Navy were aimed at China. The reason why the Japanese Navy general Kintori Okakuchi, who was shot from the plane, appeared in Guangdong was to prepare to attack China from the sea.
The Japanese army's actions in the past month seemed to be cooperating with Yoshisaburo Nomura. In mid-April, the Japanese army landed on the coast of Zhejiang and captured Shaoxing. Three days later, the Japanese army successively captured Ningbo, Taizhou and Wenzhou. Two days later, the Japanese Navy landed in Fujian and captured Fuzhou. What's more serious is that the Japanese army even captured Fenghua. The original wife of the boss in Chongqing was also bombed and killed.
For the Republic of China government at that time, Zhejiang was a very special place. Because the boss in Chongqing was from Zhejiang, he also promoted many fellow villagers, so among the government at that time, the Zhejiang Gang had the most powerful force. This was like in the army, the Baoding Group was the largest force. However, the Baoding Group in the army was not the direct line of the boss, so it was suppressed, while the Zhejiang Gang in the government was promoted by the boss.
Fenghua, Zhejiang is the hometown of the Chongqing boss. Chinese people have always attached great importance to their hometown. Now that Zhejiang has lost, it is natural for those senior officials of the Zhejiang Gang to lose face and cannot even protect their ancestral tombs in their hometown. This is a very serious matter in traditional Chinese concepts.
I don’t know how many senior officials in Chongqing are shouting "I am ashamed of my ancestors", but they have no choice but to do so. Zhejiang belongs to the Third War Zone. The commander of the Third War Zone, Chief Gu, is the specific executor of the "Southern Anhui Incident". This Chief Gu is really capable and has limited level. Although he is in a high position and has fought several major battles during the War of Resistance, he has basically never won. He is overthinking his desire to fight the Japanese.
Moreover, this commander also suffered repeated defeats in the War of Liberation in the future. He ruined the most elite American mechanized 74th Division while commanding in Xuzhou. He lost Jinzhou while supervising the battle in Shenyang. He was divided into three by the East China Field Army on the Huaihai battlefield. When guarding Guangdong and Guangxi, he also fled to Sichuan, escaped from Sichuan to Yunnan and Guizhou, and fled from Yunnan and Guizhou to Xikang. He fought repeatedly and was eventually driven to Taiwan. Such a foreign war layman and civil war layman could only hide in the mountains to fight guerrillas, allowing him to face the Japanese head-on. Even if he had the courage, he did not have the ability.
The Japanese's actions on the southeast coast also made the United States feel relieved. Coupled with the deliberate propaganda of Yoshisaburo Nomura, many Americans really think that the Japanese navy is taking frequent actions just to deal with China.
The Americans took it lightly, which made them pay the lives of 2,400 soldiers, more than 80 warships and more than 400 aircraft at Pearl Harbor. However, for Japan, this was indeed a very successful diplomatic strategy. Nomura Yoshisaburo's actions in the United States not only paralyzed the Americans, but also bought time for Japan. From this point of view, Nomura Yoshisaburo was a very successful diplomat.
Previously, Hu Shi fought against three in the United States, but none of the three Japanese ambassadors to the United States could suppress Hu Shi. Instead, China won victory in the diplomatic battlefield. Now, as soon as Nomura Yoshisaburo took action, the diplomatic situation between China and Japan in the United States reversed. Although the United States is still aiding China, the embargo on Japan's material transportation has been loosened.
Chen Qiang knew that Hu Shi was much more difficult now than when he first came to the United States. When Hu Shi first came to the US team, all diplomatic affairs at the Embassy in the United States were the final decisions of Hu Shi himself. Now Chongqing has sent a more powerful and powerful envoy Song. So although Hu Shi is now under the title of ambassador to the United States, the real person in charge of the embassy in the United States is the Special Envoy Song. Hu Shi, the pig girl ambassador, has now been undermined and has no power in his hands and has no way to fight against Yoshisaburo Nomura. It is precisely because of his imprisonment that in 1942, Hu Shi chose to resign from his position as ambassador to the United States.
As for the Special Envoy Song, he is now busy asking Americans for money!
In the past two months, Special Envoy Song has signed two agreements with the United States, one is the Sino-US Metal Loan Contract, which used US$60 million in mortgages to borrow US$50 million from Americans; the other is the Sino-US Qualification Fund Agreement, which Chongqing still sold the Squash Fund to the United States in exchange for a loan of US$50 million.
The two agreements together borrowed a total of 100 million US dollars, which was also the largest loan obtained from the United States during the War of Resistance Against Japan.
"It's 1941 now, and I have to hold on for another four years!" Chen Qiang sighed and then put down the Time magazine in his hand.
At this moment, the phone rang out and Chen Qiang picked up the receiver.
"Is it Chen? I am Lucas, Lucas of Adam International Trading Company." The other party spoke.
"Hello, Mr. Lucas, I am Chen Qiang." Chen Qiang answered.
"Chan, your hula hoop is sold in Argentina! Do you still have stock there? I need to take some more and ship it to South America. This time it's not just Argentina, but Brazil and Chile," Lucas said.
Immediately afterwards, Lucas introduced Chen Qiang the sales of the hula hoop in Argentina.
Although the Argentines were very rich at this time, Argentina was a country that relied on agriculture after all. Such agricultural countries were definitely not as good as industrial countries like the United States in terms of infrastructure construction, so the entertainment life of Argentines was far less abundant than that of Americans. It is precisely because there was not so much entertainment life that Argentines devoted themselves to various sports in their spare time, especially sports that did not have very high hardware requirements. For example, football, as long as there was a ball, you could play with two bricks and a goal.
When the hula hoop entered Argentina, this kind of sport that could be played anytime and anywhere immediately attracted countless Argentinians, and many Argentinians even created novel ways of playing with hula hoops.
If we compete for economic development, Latin American countries will definitely not be as good as the United States; if we compete for scientific and technological research, Latin American countries are several levels worse than the United States; if we compete for military construction, Latin American countries are completely different from the United States, and the two are completely incomparable. But if we compare "play", South American countries will not be much worse than the United States.
The three major goals in the future, Latin American countries are not inferior to the United States. In terms of football, several countries in South America are better than the United States; in terms of volleyball, Brazil's world rankings have always been above the United States; even the most powerful basketball sport in the United States, the Argentines have once embarrassed the United States.
The more this is true in other sports, the track and field, which Americans are best at, is overtaken by countries in the Caribbean, and Jamaica's Fiery Legion crushes Americans no longer once or twice; in motorsports, Brazilian drivers have much better results in Formula 1 than American drivers, and in domestic racing competitions in the United States, a large number of South American drivers also appear; even in emerging e-sports events, Brazilians often compete with Americans for the right to qualify in the Americas.
When working, the people of Latin America are indeed relatively casual and even lazy, but when they play various sports, they are more active than people in any country.
Therefore, it is natural that hula hoops have a high sales in Argentina. For Argentines, it is amazing to have something to play anytime, anywhere and be able to spend the boring time at work!
Chen Qiang unexpectedly said that the hula hoop was not only sold out in Argentina, but also showed strong interest in the hula hoop in neighboring countries such as Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia.
These countries are poorer than Argentina, and the political situation in some places is even unstable. From time to time, peasant uprisings and coups will break out. So in Chen Qiang's opinion, such a place that is not peaceful and not rich will not be a good market, and the requirements for entertainment life will not be very high. No one will buy a hula hoop.
According to the Chinese values, when the country is in turmoil or poor, the most important thing for the people is to work hard to survive, and people will not have to have fun. However, the Chinese values ​​do not work in South American countries. Chen Qiang still underestimated the "playful intention" of South American countries. For the people of these South American countries, the country is in chaos and the people are in poverty, but they still have to play, and they have to play well and have fun.
A hula hoop is shipped from the United States to South American countries. Including the various costs, the final price is probably more than one dollar. Even for wealthy Argentines, this price should not be cheap. For poorer countries, buying a hula hoop for one dollar is simply expensive.
However, many people in South American countries seem to not care. If they happen to have one dollar left, then buy a hula hoop. As for whether they have money to eat tomorrow, that is tomorrow's business. I will buy the hula hoop and have fun today!
This is the real thing of drinking today!
After learning about the consumption habits of South Americans, Chen Qiang finally understood why many South American stars in later generations had to play football when they were hungry when they were young. At first glance, this is a very inspiring story. In order to pursue their dream of being a star, a football boy had to practice his football skills even if he had no food to eat, and eventually became a football star. In fact, these people's hearts are really big enough. I have fun today. As for whether I will be hungry tomorrow, I didn't think about it at all. If I don't have anything to eat, I'll just eat it. I'll be hungry tomorrow, and I might have it the day after tomorrow.
...
In Chen Qiang's warehouse, the stock of hula hoops has never been large, so Chen Qiang just went to Beckland Company to see if Bakerland could find a way to increase the production capacity of hula hoops.
When Chen Qiang arrived at Beckland's company, Beckland was doing experiments in the laboratory.
Beckland, the founder of Beckland Company, is a chemist. Beckland Jr. also inherited his father's genes and is considered a chemist with a high level. On weekdays, Beckland Jr. stays in the laboratory for other times except running a company, immersed in various chemical experiments.
After seeing Chen Qiang, Beckland put down the experiment and went out to greet him.
"Chen, let me tell you good news. We have modified the polyethylene production process. Now we can produce higher density polyethylene materials!" Little Beckland said excitedly, as if a girl was showing off her new clothes.
At present, the production of high-pressure polyethylene is high-pressure polyethylene, which is a relatively low-density and softer material. It will be used to make plastic bags in the future. It is precisely because the density of this polyethylene is relatively low that the hula hoops sold by Chen Qiang will not be of good quality and will be easily damaged.
High-density polyethylene is not produced with high pressure, but with catalysts. This will not appear until 1952. For example, the protective layer outside the cable is made of high-density polyethylene.
Bakerland is obviously not satisfied with producing low-density polyethylene, so he has been improving the process, hoping to produce high-density polyethylene.
"It seems that you have not given up on using plastic to make water pipes yet!" Chen Qiang said with a smile.
Unfortunately, Chen Qiang does not understand chemical engineering knowledge. Otherwise, he would give some advice to Little Beckland. Little Beckland can really make plastic that can be used as a water pipe.
"I will make plastic water pipes sooner or later. I believe that plastic can replace everything. Maybe one day in the future, the cars running on the street will be made of plastic!" Little Beckland said confidently.
"I don't know what kind of material the future car will be, but electric bicycles are really plastic shells." Chen Qiang said in his heart.
Then Chen Qiang planned to explain his purpose, but Little Beckland was still excited. He pulled Chen Qiang to the cabinet in the laboratory and said, "Chen, look at the new breakthrough I just made."
Little Beckland said, and took a small yellow square from the cabinet and handed it to Chen Qiang: "Guess what this is?"
Chen Qiang held the small square in his hand, weighed it with his hand, pressed it again, and then determined that it should be a piece of plastic material similar to resin.
Before Chen Qiang answered, Bakerland couldn't help but speak, "You must think this is a kind of rubber! I tell you, this is not rubber! Isn't it very magical? It's something that looks similar to rubber, but not rubber!"
"Is this a synthetic resin?" Chen Qiang asked.
"How did you guess?" Little Beckland was slightly surprised, and then said, "For you, an outsider, it is already very good to guess that this is a synthetic resin. This thing is called polyurethane, which is a material I just synthesized successfully. This thing is very stable, corrosion-resistant, elastic and mechanical properties, and can insulate, sound-proof and shock-resistant. It is a new material."
"You invented this?" Chen Qiang asked.
Bakerland shook his head, "It's not me, this thing was created by Bayer, Germany, and it was four years ago, so in this regard, our company lags behind the Germans for a full four years. In fact, we originally did not intend to copy the German technology. After all, this is a patented product of Bayer. But now the relationship between the United States and Germany is so tense, it doesn't matter if we use German technology."
"I understand, reverse engineering." Chen Qiang smiled, then asked, "What kind of polyester can be used for?"
"I haven't thought of it yet, but I think it can be used for soles. This thing is quite wear-resistant and should be more durable than ordinary leather shoes." Little Beckland said.
"Is this thing expensive? If it is expensive, most people can't afford to wear such shoes." Chen Qiang asked again.
"Raw materials are not expensive. I guess even large-scale industrial production will not be very expensive. The by-products of this kind of oil are not valuable now. Refineries want gasoline, diesel and heavy oil. As for the raw materials for producing plastics, they are all treated at a bargain price." Bakerland said.
Chen Qiang nodded, and he played with the small square of polyurethane in his hand and said, "I thought of a profitable transaction, should I do it together?"
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Chapter completed!